cultural anxiety

People are spinning out all around me - not the least of which are my teenage students. When I look at many of the youth I teach I am concerned. It is getting harder for me to do my job although I am actually better at it than I was 5 years ago. I can't teach people what they need to know simply because they don't see or hear me, they are just too dysfunctional, so many personal, social and psychological issues. They have few life skills with which to even begin to negotiate the 'real' world, have never been set adequate boundaries and hence have no real self-esteem. They are self-obsessed but always trapped in uncertainty because they have no idea who they are. Few people have told them the truth: 'that is crap, you can do better than that, do it again'. They aren't allowed to fail, feel bad, expected to take responsibility for their actions - we aren't allowed to metaphorically smack their arses when they sass us, as elders who should be respected....no wonder they don't know who they are. We have given them too much choice and they are spinning around in a vacuum.

But it's not just them. I am witnessing angst everywhere - in the staff room at morning tea, from my neighbour, on the drive to work, on the news (well you would expect that). There is a groundswell of collective stress and it is getting more difficult for me to hold my own ground because we all affect each other so much. Yesterday a work colleague, one among many including myself, was expressing frustration with students, the education system and so on. As a responsible older person like me she was questioning, doubting herself - even her abilities. I wanted to take her aside and say to her: 'you know, I don't think it is you, and I don't think you can do much about it'.

We are living in a strange time, it's not just that I am getting older, because the young ones are feeling it too - but like most people, they don't realise what is happening, they just feel anxious. I think it has something to do with the fact that we in the West know collectively but unconsciously, that the party is over, that things are wrong, that we are wrong and that there will be some form of 'correction', like the ones we see in the stock market. The facade, backed up by a language that euphemistically and quite unsuccessfully encourages us to stay in denial, is cracking.

I think the Emperor is down to his underwear, and I can't wait for him to get his gear off......as ugly as it is going to be.

image: my photo God(do) is Watching

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